Tarzan (1986)

Preliminary: Of course, gotta do the C64 version for that delicious Hubbard work. Oh shoot and a set ending. A lot of reviewers note tedious and mediocre gameplay compared to the music and look... hopefully the Sound and Look push me through it. I'm questioning what I see in the gameplay of whom you're beating up, isn't Tarzan supposed to fight settlers? I guess I've never actually read the original Tarzan nor seen any of the movies in years.

Argh, well after doing a little research (C64-wiki keeps coming through!), seems like this will be a commitment! Action-adventure? Check. Hubbard music? Check. Good graphics? Check. Set ending? Check. Map available? Check. Hopefully the gameplay wont detract too much and that just using a map and figuring things out on my own will be doable and enjoyable. Here goes nothing!

Look: 7/10 I really like that it shows the time of day, and I can't deny I like the full sprites and backgrounds... but beyond that...

Sound: 7/10 Based on the videos I've watched, I know the Sound gets much better, but based on what I heard and had the patience to get through...

Play: 6/10 Interesting: You have 3 days to finish the quest. Each day has 4 parts, indicated by 4 colors. Green for day, light blue for twilight, dark blue for night and purple for dawn. When you're out of energy, 1 day will pass. Thus you can lose your energy only twice. At night, you cannot enter the skull shaped rock! Wait for dawn (purple sky).

Wow I was loving it at first. Navigating through a jungle scenery with a great look, with different color vibes for different times of day (I had that idea for a platformer I wanna code!), but then I got into my first battle. What the heck is this. The punch mechanic has the right idea, and it was fun seeing the enemy fly across the room, but like, die already? It seems I have to move with him then hit him out of the screen? Just felt very clunky and lame and disappointing, even the sound effects for the fight... and like, why doesn't he fall through the hole when I hit him over it? Disappointing.. and more and more I'm seeing the lack of detail others mentioned. Sure the Look is nice, and cool that it changes colors, but most screens look very similar to each other a la an early Rare/Ultimate Play the Game action-adventure and the gameplay only has so many factors besides navigation/adventure. So much potential, but it turned into navigating a bunch and with clunky controls and lame, over used combat... that turns into a bad formula.

Feel: 6/10 When I saw how far I'd have to go for the next item, according to the map, I was really unsure whether to press on. The combat was tacky repetitive and not fun, jumping over occasional holes can be fun only for so long, and overly long navigation through same-y rooms gets old quick...

Even the music, which is done by the great Hubbard, just kept with the same theme. I know other tracks come about later in the game, but how much longer do I have to hear this repetitive drumming ha. Nonetheless, I decided to at least try to push on.... but my patience was being tested already..

Attachment: 6/10 And after trying over and over to get back across this gap (mind you, I got across the other direction on my first try, but the collision mask is very unclear, whether or not I touched the rope Tarzan didn't seem to want to do his auto-grab he's supposed to), I asked myself, why am I trying over and over, still with the same banal drumming going on... Why am I trying to like this game where you beat up caricatures of Black people? Oh the things I do to myself... Definitely moving on.